University women's acknowledgement of rape : individual, interpersonal, and social factors

This study examined predictors of university women's acknowledgement of rape experiences using an ecological framework. Of the 109 university women who reported experiences that met a legal definition of rape, 64% did not label the experience as rape. By using the ecological framework, the influences of interpersonal, individual, and social factors could be seen. Although all three levels were individual predictors of acknowledgement, the interpersonal and individual forces were much stronger. Rape acknowledgement was influenced primarily by the level of force experienced, the degree of the belief that a rape involves a high degree of physical force, and the amount of behavioral self-blame reported by the woman. Of lesser importance were characterological self-blame, the belief that dating equals attractiveness and the number of sexually victimized peers in a woman's peer group. General beliefs about dating and social support factors are not as important as predictors of acknowledgement as the situational factors of the rape and individual factors directly related to the rape